A Shadow of the Past
by Bromigo1
Summary: "I felt like I was living two lives. One in the present and one in the past." ― A.B. Shepherd, The Beacon
1. Prologue

He woke up and looked around. It was raining outside. He sat up, everything was fuzzy. He looked at the devastated landscape around him, buildings crumbled and lifeless cars littering the street. He lifted himself from the small bench he had been sleeping on, sitting right outside a small diner with a large neon light flickering. "Eat," it said. He stood up and walked inside the diner. The tables and seats were scattered across the floor. _What happened here?_ He mused to himself. _As a matter of fact, where is here? More importantly, who am I and why am I here?_ He walked towards the kitchen and came upon a small table that was still upright. On it was a small container of fries; he picked one up and took a bite. _Cold,_ He thought as he stuck the rest of the fry in his mouth, _but recently made._ He heard footsteps outside and quickly hid himself in the kitchen. A man with pale-gray skin walked in. He had large eyes and pointed ears. His mouth was full of fangs and his tongue was forked. He examined his own skin, _dark__ red_, and his own eyes, _average size... presumably._ He felt his own teeth, _molars, canine, incisors, premolars. _He examined his own ears, _rounded, not pointed. Conclusion: we are not of the same species... though, it would be useful to know my own species, or my own name for that matter._ Suddenly, he heard another being enter. He looked across the room in the darkness, making out the figure of a young girl standing in the door way. She had long, black locks upon her head that were drenched from the precipitation outside. _Young, appears to be at the peak of her adolescence, puberty is the causation of hormonal imbalances, most likely to result in emotional outburst. _

"Daddy... why?" She said through sniffling. He looked over to the first being, who had been eating the fries that appeared to belong to the young female that stood in the doorway. _Confirmed. Adolescent female upset with paternal unit for eating her food. Analysis: Trivial matter, emotional anguish present, most likely due to unresolved issues between the two in tandem with the females hormonal imbalance from puberty. Course of action: Ignore, best not to get involved in familial disputes, and the matter appears to be inconsequential. _He turned towards the back exit ,out of the kitchen, and outside. It was still raining. _Surroundings appear to have been devastated from some sort of conflict. Present area appears to have once been largely populated, now desolate. _He put his hands in the pocket of the jacket he was wearing, coming in contact with an item within. He retrieved the unidentified object from his coat pocket and examined it. In his hand he held what appeared to be a photograph, nothing especially impressive. As a matter of fact, the photo was worn, faded, and had a tear in the top left corner. _Initial analysis: humanoid figure, long hair, olive skin, blue eyes, straight teeth comprised of four separate classifications of incisors, molars, premolars, and canine. Round ears and rounded tongue. Conclusion: Also not the same species as those present in the diner, possibly the same species as myself, with different skin pigmentation._ He placed the picture back in his pocket and investigated his person further, finding a small, tube-like device strapped to his belt. . He examined it. _Initial Analysis:This device is more sophisticated than the previous. Small piece of technology powered by __a small device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. _He turned the device in his hands as he examined the outside of it. He did so until he found a small, red button on the one side of it, which he proceeded to press. A fuzzy projection appeared.

"Happy birthday!" a unison of voices called out.

"Aww, geez." a voice said. _Video is in first person, appears to be a memory. My memory perhaps?_ "You guys didn't need to do this." The source of the voice said as he outstretched his arms before him, revealing a pale complexion. The red-skinned entity gazed down upon his own hands. _Complexions do no match, this is not my memory, but if this reminiscence does not belong to me, who does it belong to, and how did it come to be in my possession?_

"No, but we wanted to." The red-skinned being diverted his attention back towards the small device in his hand as he heard a strong, piercing female voice come from it. The image on the projection turned towards the voice, revealing a young woman with long, blonde hair, blue eyes, and straight, white teeth. _The woman from the picture!_ _Interesting. Two items on my person that correlate with a particular individual, importance unknown. _The projection became became fuzzier and fuzzier, eventually disappearing completely. The device shut off as the battery was exhausted. He examined the device further, opening it up to take a look inside. _Device appears to be the storage device for a partial brain emulator. Rudimentary device, technology is insufficient for the transfer of the entire mind, only holds enough capacity to store a single memory. Relevance of such a device: unknown. How I came into possession of this device: unknown. Too much is unknown. _


	2. Chapter 1: Treasure Hunt

**Ice Kingdom 1:41 AM**

Early in the morning, through the cold, icy air of the Ice Kingdom, a small figure makes its way towards a tall, snow capped mountain. Within this mountain, laying on a large bed, slept a small, elderly man. To many he is known as the Ice King, but to those who truly know him, who can see past his pale-blue skin, his long goblin nose, and his affinity for kidnapping princesses, he is a man who goes by the name of Simon Petrikov. The Ice King was sleeping peacefully, wrapped snugly in a leopard-print blanket, when a small, robotic drone flew through the window of his castle. The drone made its way around the Ice King's layer, scanning everything it came in contact with, finding nothing but dirty laundry and discarded pizza boxes with half-eaten slices of pizza inside. None of this seemed to interest the small, robotic mechanism, who continued on its quest of unknown purpose. Eventually the drone found the sleeping Ice King cuddling with a small, plump penguin. The drone scanned them, waking the penguin in the process. The small, rounded penguin watched as the drone scanned the sleeping figure of its king and watched as it opened a small compartment on the lower half of its metallic body, out of which extended a thin, robotic arm towards the Ice King.

"Wenk" The penguin said. The drone turned its attention towards the penguin and scanned it. Whatever the drone was looking for, the penguin offered nothing of importance, for once the drone had scanned the portly, flightless bird, it turned its attention back towards the Ice King. "Wenk." The penguin said again, now standing up and waddling towards the drone, walking over the Ice King as it did so.

"Gunter, daddy is trying to sleep." The Ice King groaned as he turned over and continued snoring. The drone picked the penguin up and placed him back on the pillow and pulled the covers over it. The drone went back to the Ice King and removed the crown from the his head. "Wenk." The penguin said once more. The drone turned towards the penguin and scanned it again, turning away once it did so. The drone flew from the Ice King's bed and into a large corridor. Gunter, as the penguin was called, climbed out from under the covers and jumped off the bed. "Wenk." Gunter called once drone stopped, turned, and stared at Gunter with the large, single eye it had in the center of its elliptical head. The drone reached towards the penguin and grasped it in its cold, metallic grip. "Wenk." the penguin argued as it was lifted up and placed in the containment unit of the drone. The drone turned and flew down a long set of spiraling stairs and through a series of icy tunnels. The drone kept going until it entered a small room cluttered with junk. The drone made its way towards a large roll top desk covered with various items of memorabilia, which it began to pick up one item at a time, scanning each one as it did and and piling them into a storage unit on its back.

**Candy Kingdom 1:45 AM**

A sleeping banana guard was suddenly awoken by the sound of something rushing by the surveillance room. The banana guard groggily rubbed his eyes and looked around, and upon seeing nothing out of the ordinary, yawned and quickly went back to sleep. Meanwhile, a small drone made its way towards a river of green sludge. The drone scanned the sludge and produced a vacuum from a small compartment on its body, sucking some of the green sludge into a containment cell. When full, the drone turned around and began flying away. As it made its way away from the candy kingdom, the drone was stopped by the large face of a giant gumball machine. The giant gumball guardian stared at the considerably smaller drone, who scanned the gumball guardian in turn. The drone stared at the giant gumball machine with its singular eye, eventually going around it and continuing on its way.

**Marceline's House 2:01 AM**

A small drone flew through the early morning air as it made its way towards a large willow tree on the outskirts of the Candy Kingdom. The drone made its way to the front door, only to find that it was locked. The drone scanned the door and produced from one of its many compartments a lock pick and quickly unlocked the door. The drone flew inside and began scanning everything in the living-room before moving towards the closet. The drone opened the closet door and began scanning its contents. The drone found a small chest, scanned it, opened it, and picked up a small dress that was fitted for a small child and scanned it, placing it into a storage unit located on its back, doing the same with a small pair of shoes. The drone continued scanning the house until it came upon the room in which slept the queen of the vampires, Marceline! The drone entered the room as Marceline slept and scanned the entire room, eventually scanning the bed where she slept. The drone reached for a small doll that the vampire queen clutched closely and attempted to pry it from her iron grip. The drone eventually managed to retrieve the doll and was about to exit through a window in the room when Marceline woke up.

Marceline felt around the bed and upon finding that her doll was not there, sat up quickly and flew in the air, checking under her bed and all around the floor in case it had fallen off of the bed. She did this until she caught sight of the drone hovering next to her window.

"Hey!" She shouted, which caused the drone to fly quickly out the window. Marceline followed close behind, eventually catching up and knocking the drone out of the sky. Marceline landed and made her way towards it, transforming into a monstrous beast as she did. "Where.. is... Hambo?!" She howled. The drone began to hover and turned to flee, only to be smashed to pieces by Marceline. Upon being smashed to bits, the drone dropped Hambo and the rest of her belongings. "Hambo!" Marceline shouted as she scooped the small, worn-out doll off the ground and hugged it close. Marceline caught sight of the small dress and the small pair of shoes on the ground and picked them up and stared at them. "Weird." She said to herself as she flew off.

**Undisclosed Location 3:27 AM**

Two drones made their way through a devastated landscape, void of any form of vegetation or any other form of life. They made their way through the desert landscape, finally coming upon a solitary building that was near impossible to find in the dark, desolate landscape that it was situated in. The drones approached the entrance of the large facility. One of the drones approached a small panel to the right of a large metal door. The drone opened a small slot on the top of its head, out of which came a small USB device, which connected to the small panel. The connection caused 87 small panels to appear on the large metal door. On these panels the other drone punched in series of strange symbols, which in turn caused the large metal door to open. In the center of the facility, on a large throne-like chair, sat a large figure clothed in a large, black overcoat, black pants, and large black boots. This figure was busy watching something on a large monitor. Upon hearing the two drones enter, the figure turned off the monitor and turned to face the two drones.

"Good. You have returned, though it seems as though you are one short." The two drones stopped before the large figure. "I trust you have brought what I have asked."


End file.
